The written word will always have its place, but the internet landscape has evolved and changed the way we think of information presentation. Website users have come to expect an interactive experience, and videos deliver. Here’s how videos became king of content, and why you need to start incorporating them into your website now. Read More

2013 has seen a surge in new web design trends, driven by evolving user expectations, cultural shifts and new technologies. Design trends that started out hot this year have either gained momentum or fallen by the wayside to make way for more relevant design integrations. As the year draws to a close, certain design styles are breaking the mold, moving us away from the old days of information overload and toward cleaner, simper times, while offering users a more engaging and interactive experience.

Read on for a list of 2014 web design trends that are making waves and setting the new standard for today’s, and tomorrow’s, website. Read More

Websites like many technology-based products and services, age in dog years. You may wishfully think your website is young and spry at 5 years old, but the reality of this particular life cycle reflects less of the original vibrant youth and more of the stuck-in-your-ways approach to middle age.

It isn’t that your website wasn’t awesome five years ago. It was. But look how far we’ve come since then. The very first original iPhone was released 5 years ago this June. The iPad itself was only a glimmer in Steve Jobs’s eye. Smartphones and tablets have completely reshaped the way we interact online, so much so that we can barely imagine our lives without them. And now it’s time for your website to catch up with the trends, starting with responsive design.

I don’t generally go out of my way to change something I’m happy with, but about a year ago a friend of mine suggested that I try Google Chrome as a web browser. Now a year later, while I don’t have much bad to say about my old go-to browser Firefox, what I can say is that Chrome has changed the way I browse the internet.

Here’s why

Simplicity. It’s easy to use and enjoyable. You can type in a website address or search for something all from the same navigation bar on top.

Gmail. If you have a Gmail account you really owe it to yourself to have Chrome. Need to attach some photos? Just drag and drop them into the attachment area of your Gmail and it does the rest. No clicking on an upload button and searching for the files on your computer. If you send or receive an email with a YouTube link the video can automatically play inside your email!

Syncing. Use more than one computer, at work or at home? If you do Chrome will sync your bookmarks and stored data such as passwords automatically. Bookmark something on your laptop, it shows up next time you’re on your desktop! To enable syncing, click on Preferences, Under The Hood, and then click on Sync.

Web Store. Think of the Chrome Web Store like the App Store on an iPhone or iPad. It’s filled with thousands of free apps and your bound to find a few you’ll regularly use. My favorites include Awesome Screenshot, Wunderlist and Flixster Movies.

Android. If you have an Android based smartphone there is a great Chrome extension available in the web store called Chrome to Phone that allows you to send the current webpage you’re viewing on your computer directly to your Android powered smartphone! Comes in handy when you’re about to leave the house or office and want to take what you’re looking at with you.

Most of the websites you browse use one of a handful of “safe” fonts that are preinstalled on all Mac and Windows computers; the most common include Arial, Verdanna and Georgia. The benefits to using these fonts are that they scale well and they work great for body text on websites. But what about your page titles, headers, etc? Does everything need to look bland?

New technologies in font replacement now allow you to embed custom fonts, giving you the option to explore hundreds of font options rather than a handful. The gap between a web designer’s concept and a coded webpage grows smaller every day thanks in part to font embedding technology.

What’s our favorite solution? We’ve been using Google Web Fonts, the service is free and the font library expanding daily. Let us know about your favorite service! What font do you use on your website?

I’ve shared on Google Buzz, customized my iGoogle page and even heard of Orkut (yeah, right?), so the popular tendency towards skepticism on Google’s latest attempt at social media is understandable. Facebook is huge, 750 million users and going stronger than ever! Why then am I able to say with confidence that Google+ will work?

Let’s go back to Facebook for a moment. Facebook has become the world’s largest social network and in doing so has also become a powerful marketing tool. Businesses are able to leverage the power of Facebook to stay in touch with their customer base and communicate on a more personal level than ever before. So why does Google+ stand a chance? Simple. Facebook is too large and too connected for many of us, making social media feel somewhat like your girlfriend shouting at you from the other room while the TV is on and the Brewers just went to a commercial break. There’s a lot of background noise. Now pretend that your boss just called and you accidentally answered on speakerphone. Many of us don’t want to mix our professional and personal lives together yet with the business world so prominent on Facebook while any post or picture feels like a unnecesary risk to our professional career.

Meet Google+, while still in Beta, offers a different approach to how you share or “post” content. The idea is simple, whenever you add someone or receive a friend request the person must be put into a “circle” which is essentially a category like “Friends”, “Family”, “Coworkers”, etc etc. When you post a photo, video or write something you choose which group/s of people see your information. Rather than try to explain everything that Google+ is doing, check out the video above for a more thorough explanation!